Events

New semester! More Kappa! This email contains important updates and reminders, so please read all the way to the end.

First Meeting:

Our first meeting will be Sunday, January 21st at 6pm-7:30pm in Hellems 211 (same room as last semester).

The first MEP will be immediately before at 4:30pm

All other meetings and MEPs are already in the calendar; it’s your responsibility to know when they are if you do not use the Kappa Google calendar.

Committees:

Reminder, we have two types of committees now: Core and Fluid

Core committees are the chair committees (Music, Service, and Brotherhood)

New members/Membership Candidates must spend their first full semester as an active member of one of the core committees as these will be the most involved and representative of Kappa.

Fluid committees are on an as needed basis; if you’d like to create a fluid committee, see below.

To create a fluid committee both executive and general body members must present to exec. the purpose of the committee and why it is needed.

In the case of a general body member they must also submit the names of at least two brothers willing to join their committee.

General body members that become committee leaders must attend the executive meetings.

A rough start and stop date for the proposed fluid committee must be presented

Run for as long as needed. Not required to meet weekly.

Choosing a committee:

Members must choose and commit to a committee by the second general body meeting of the semester. This gives them two weeks to explore the different committees and choose.

If a fluid committee adjourns before the semester ends, members must then join another committee if they are already not a part of another one. I.e. at no point in time can a member be on zero committees.

Committee chairs will report to the executive board the members of their committee.

Reminder of New Attendance Policy

All active members of Kappa are required to join at least one committee a semester, but are encouraged to join as many as they are interested and willing to commit to. Members must be committed to their chosen committee for the entirety of the semester. New members must spend their first semester in one of the three core committees.

Attendance at committees will be taken but not punitive. Members should be self motivated enough to attend. Members will get out what they put in. Each committee may set their own attendance policy which may or may not be punitive.

Involvement in committees will be taken into consideration when deciding, elections, and active status.

75% attendance at general meetings – max. 2 meeting absences (Skypes allowed and do not count against your absence count)

Absences must be reported to Kristina, whether they are excused or not – this is simply for the courtesy and respect of your fellow brothers

Excused absences include: musical performances, school requirements (homework does not count – this includes practicing if you are a music major), hospitalization, funerals, scholarship commitments, possible others on a case-by-case basis. REMEMBER: I can’t excuse you if you don’t tell me you’ll be gone; it’s on you to communicate.

Things that will not be excused: weddings (you should know about these ahead of time and should plan your absences accordingly), sick days (you can Skype in from home), homework, review sessions, possible others on a case-by-case basis.

Exceeding 2 unexcused absences from general meetings may result in probationary status.

If you have questions about attendance, please please please ask. Better to ask then get accidentally penalized due to a miscommunication.

Calendar

The Kappa calendar is more or less updated with meetings, events, and the basketball band schedule. There is a LOT! Something almost every week. Some things are still tentative, but final dates will hopefully be decided on by the next executive meeting, so hang tight on those. Other events that need to be on your radar are:

February 3rd (Saturday): PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR NOW! We will be having a meeting, MEP, and (fingers crossed) 1st Degree on this Saturday because the 4th is Super Bowl Sunday. We figured it would be easier to move everything to another day than to risk absences and/or scheduling conflicts.

February 16th-17th (Friday – Saturday): MWD District Day at Colorado School of Mines! This is an awesome opportunity that everyone should make a great effort to go to – especially if you’ve never traveled to a district event before. The cost will be zero as it is just up the road in Golden! You will get so so so so so so so much out of it – Kappa-wise and otherwise. https://www.facebook.com/events/133922557281989/

February 23rd-24th (Friday – Saturday): CU Honor Band Weekend (run by service committee, but everyone is required to volunteer to help pull it off)

February 25th (Sunday):Second Degree with MEP before

February 26-27th (Monday-Tuesday): One of National’s Chapter Field Representatives (CFR) – Alaina Peters – will be in Boulder to visit our chapter (hopefully she’ll make it in time for degree the day before as well). This is not an “inspection” and she is not the “fraternity police”, it just a routine visit and an opportunity for us to ask her any questions we may have. The visit will consist of the CFR meeting with all officers and the Director of Bands and Chapter Sponsor as well as a meet and greet with all of you! So please try and block out time on your calendar for Monday, Feb. 26th at 6:30pm-7:30 pm to do so. More details do come, just make sure it’s on your radar. For more information go here: https://www.kkpsi.org/cfr-visit/

March 11th (Sunday): Third Degree with MEP before

April 6th-8th (Friday-Sunday): Midwest District Convention!! Gonna be a blast. Location: Springfield, Missouri. Details to come.

April 21st (Saturday): “Yard Party” with the Xi Chapter at Colorado School of Mines, details to come

Other events with dates that are TBD: Recital, retreat, conducting clinic – see calendar for tentative options.

General Housekeeping:

Inactive Status: If for whatever reason you or someone you know are considering not continuing with Kappa this semester, you need to let us know. You don’t necessarily have to explain why, but the courtesy of information is much appreciated. Remember, if you haven’t finished paying off your dues, but are going inactive, you will still be responsible for paying off that debt as the chapter has already paid that money on your behalf.

Conditional Status:Conditional letters will be due February 3rd. Letter should explain why you are seeking conditional status and what you plan to do for the chapter in your absence. Writing a letter does not guarantee you conditional status as it will need to be approved by the chapter and Dr. Roeder. You are still responsible for paying dues while you are conditional.

Overall membership requirements: I’m tired of typing so if you’d like to see a concise list of the membership requirements, you can find them on the website here.

Let me start by saying what we’re all thinking…. “April is hecking busy!!!”

It feels like we haven’t seen each other in weeks, and that is because we haven’t! Due to the strangeness of April scheduling this year, we haven’t had a regularly scheduled meeting since before spring break and this is a problem as we still have much to cover before the year’s end. To remedy this, the next meeting on Sunday, April 23rd, will be 2 hoursfrom 4pm – 6pm. I know that this is not ideal and that some may have conflicts, but we need to do this. Therefore, please do you absolute best to plan ahead and to be there for all of it. This email will preview what we will cover so that you can be prepared. If you cannot make it to the whole thing, please let K. Lu know in advance as this is very important.

This Sunday’s meeting will follow this agenda, more or less:

Quick re-introduction of everyone and our new brothers and their preferred pronouns

Nominations!

A lengthy discussion on a project for next year

Hosting district convention?

Commissioning a new piece?

Re-colonizing CSU?

Or none of the above?

National Convention

Reminders

Recital

Elections (bring your clickers or borrow a friend’s!)

Update your contact info on KKY portal

And possibly a brief workshop on strategic planning (if time allows)

Nominations (read me! even if you’re not interested in running):

We will be accepting nominations for elections (which will be held the following Sunday from noon-6pm). How nominations will work is we will open the floor for nominations of each position. The order of these positions will be called in order of election. This order is as follows:

President (everyone is eligible except for members of the Epsilon Zeta class)

Vice President (everyone except for Epsilon Zeta)

Secretary (everyone is eligible)

Treasurer (everyone is eligible)

Historian (everyone is eligible)

Music Chair (everyone is eligible)

Service Chair (everyone is eligible)

Brotherhood Chair (everyone is eligible)

You may nominate yourself or someone else may nominate you. You must be present to be nominated or you must notify Kristina if you wish to be nominated for a position beforehand if you cannot be there. The rules are #JustAcceptIt – meaning if you are nominated, we highly encourage you to accept the nomination even if you are not interested or on the fence; you will have a chance to decline the nomination again at the elections meeting.

If you are nominated, I will send you an email with detailed instructions on how to run a platform and how to prepare. If you are thinking of running for a position, talk to current or past holders of that chair or position and learn all that you can starting now. The more you learn from others beforehand, the stronger your platform will be and the transition to executive committee will be much easier for you and the chapter.

Again, elections will be held April 30th from noon to 6pm, please bring your clicker or borrow a friend’s. It is not likely that it will take the full six hours, but this meeting is crucial and can be lengthy; please block of your afternoon for this as it is MANDATORY. In order to even open the floor for elections, we must have quorum (which means 75% of the chapter present). You absolutely must get schedules adjusted so you can be there for the chapter, this has been on the calendar since the start of the semester, so no excuses such as work or prior commitments will be accepted.

Potential Project for Next Year!

For those of you who were not at retreat or convention, there are some awesome opportunities on the horizon for our chapter, if we choose to pursue them! These opportunities include hosting next year’s district convention, commissioning a new piece at CU, or re-colonizing the Kappa chapter at CSU (which has since been inactive). We talked at length about the pros and cons of these ideas at retreat; here are the minutes from our meeting at retreat about the discussion. The short pros and cons list is as follows, be prepared to discuss more at the meeting so we can decided before the year is over.

Hosting 2018 MWD Convention:

Pros:

We could bring more district interaction out West!

We have two members of the district council (Tate and Ahnika) that will be excellent liaisons

The district counselors can provide excellent guidance to help us

Will be cost neutral (district will reimburse)

Cons:

Would be a year-long planning effort (would assign a standing committee whose members would meet each week, sometimes twice a week)

Our chapter is relatively inexperienced (Kristina is the only member to have been to more than one convention)

Commissioning a New Piece

Pros:

Leave another lasting impact on the CU College of Music

Cons:

Will require a lot of fundraising (we went in the red financially when we commissioned American Elegy)

Re-colonizing CSU

Pros:

Relatively low effort (Nationals does most of the administrative work, we act as mentors)

Growing the number of Kappa chapters in the West and expanding our district interaction

Cons:

We are not 100% sure that there is interest there in re-colonization

These are ideas that have been tossed around at convention and retreat; we by no means have to do any of the above. Be thinking about these ideas this week and come prepared with thoughts and questions. The goal will be to have chosen a project (or none) by the end of this meeting so we can aptly prepare as some are time-sensitive.

National Convention

Deadline to RSVP to go with Alpha Iota will be May 13th (this date has been pushed back from May 1st). See this post for more information.

Reminders:

Don’t forget to be practicing for recital on April 29th! Invite your friends and family! Facebook event page coming soon.

Update your contact info on the KKY portal! Please make sure that your info is up to date.

Phew! That was a lot! Deep breath and be thinking of these things over the next week. Let K. Lu know of any conflicts you have or any questions. See you next week!

This semester, plan on meeting in UMC 382-384. This is a much larger room with flexible furniture arrangements. We will have meetings here for the majority of the semester, unless there is a degree that day, in which case we will try to meet in the music school (still working out the details of that).